NCHC supports reducing the patient financial burden of an expensive health care system. As such, the Coalition supports eliminating the practice of surprise medical billing. Surprise medical billing arises when a patient is held liable for health services that have been left unpaid. Additionally, surprise medical billing is most closely associated with ancillary and emergency services provided by out-of-network physicians. Currently, Congress has focused on removing the patient from payment disputes between providers and insurers. Although the Coalition does not currently support one specific bill for surprise billing, the Coalition continues to monitor legislation.
NCHC supports bipartisan solutions to eliminate surprise billing, including
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- Protecting patients from surprise billing in situations where it is unreasonable to expect them to know which providers are in-network
- Encouraging network simplicity for both patients and providers
Recent publications from NCHC on this topic:
Surprise Medical Billing Primer